Seventeen-year-old Paige Winter was standing in waist-deep water at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, when the shark attacked.
Her father, Charlie Winter, who is a firefighter and paramedic in New Bern, North Carolina, repeatedly punched the shark to save his daughter. Paige subsequently had to have her left leg amputated and also suffered serious injuries to her hands.
“Charlie wouldn’t stop until it released his little girl,” close family friend Brandon Bersch told Today, which also reported that Charlie had previously saved a child from a burning home.
Remarkably, despite her injuries, Paige says that she will be OK, and that she wants people to leave sharks alone. Paige’s mom, Marcy Winter, wrote that her daughter was “cracking jokes” and “wants everyone to know that sharks are still good people.”
You can read more about Paige, her dad and the attack at people.com
